The Class of 2010’s Job Market

For most of the 2000s, college graduates faced a great job market. Students from an institution like Stanford seemingly had a menu of great entry-level positions to choose from.

Then fall 2008 happened. Members of the class of 2008 were laid off. Some recruiting channels dried up. The Class of 2009 had difficulty finding decent job. Recent graduates, with little-to-no job experience and a liberal arts degree faced grim job prospects.

Is the Class of 2010 the same? Stanford graduates likely have a better shot than most, but the numbers have not gotten better. Some studies argue, in fact, that the class of 2010 faces a worse job market than the Class of 2009 did.

The Economic Policy Institute released a study in May darkly concluding,

For the class of 2010, it will be one of the worst years to graduate high school or college since at least 1983 and possibly the worst since the end of World War II.

Class of 2010 – what is the pervading mood? Optimistic? Despiar-addled? Mixed?